The Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and the Seaflower Marine Protected Area

GDS Center researcher and Professor Emerita Marion Howard, MA SID'04, has focused her practice and research in Colombia’s San Andres Archipelago in the western Caribbean for decades and worked with the Colombian government as an advisor to the National Environment System from 1996 to 2014. Much of her work has been in collaboration with CORALINA, the Colombian government’s environmental management agency and authority for the San Andres Archipelago.

Professor Howard led and later advised CORALINA’s work to establish the UNESCO Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, which includes the inhabited islands and surrounding seas of the San Andres Archipelago, making it one of the largest marine biosphere reserves in the world. In 2012, CORALINA’s executive director, Elizabeth Taylor, was awarded the Michel Batisse Award for Biosphere Reserve Management for their innovative work linking watershed management with coral reef conservation in a project planned and advised by Ms. Howard. See Case Study 11, pp. 60-61.

Professor Howard also coordinated development of the Caribbean’s largest marine protected area (MPA), the Seaflower. The Seaflower MPA project emerged from work with local stakeholders, especially artisanal fishers and other traditional users, carried out by a local team led by Professor Howard.

Photo credit: CORALINA

The fishers were concerned with the decline of the region’s fisheries, loss of marine biodiversity, destruction of their livelihoods, and difficulty accessing their traditional fishing grounds. The approach designed by Howard and her project team to improve conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources was to integrate best available science with indigenous knowledge, train and share knowledge freely with the community to build capacity, and then allow local stakeholders to take the lead in identifying MPA objectives, multiple-use zones, regulations, and management strategies.

Photo credit: CORALINA

This approach was met first with skepticism by many in the marine science community, who expressed doubt that local users would opt for conservation over exploitation. However, taking a well planned, empowering community-based approach that gave the local people full ownership over the process resulted in extremely high levels of conservation - 53% of the MPA’s coral reefs, 100% of its mangroves, and 61% of its seagrass beds were closed to extractive uses by community consensus. Entire tropical marine ecosystems were zoned for management levels ranging from strict preservation to controlled commercial fishing. To legitimize the Seaflower MPA’s innovative approach, which balanced science with local knowledge and was rooted in a deep acceptance that the indigenous people of San Andres have the capability, understanding, and caring to save and manage their own territory, a new type of protected area was created for the country - a nationally declared MPA that is part of Colombia’s national system of protected areas but is locally managed.

A number of articles that followed this award stated that this effort proved that conservation and sustainable economic opportunities could go hand-in-hand. Working in collaboration with the local community, CORALINA created a multiple-use MPA that protects nearly 200 endangered species while providing sustainable jobs for local people. Spreading over 65,000 square kilometers, Seaflower MPA is home to over 100 coral species, 400 fish, and some 150 birds. Some zones of the MPA are reserved for artisanal fishing only, allowing local fishers to make a sustainable living. CORALINA is also working on developing other sustainable livelihoods including low-impact aquaculture, organic farming, and community-based tourism.

This work was further recognized when Marion Howard and Heller alum Rixcie Newball, MA/SID '10, of San Andres, were invited to present these methods at the Ninth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at UN Headquarters in New York. The theme of the Ninth Session was “Indigenous Peoples: Development with Culture and Identity” and gave Professor Howard and Mr. Newball the wonderful opportunity to present their work in an event entitled “Mapping Community-Based Protected Areas: A Model for Sustainable Development and Cultural and Environmental Protection.”

Through 2014, Howard continued working with CORALINA and the InterAmerican Development Bank on a project to conserve marine biodiversity and alleviate poverty in the Southwestern Caribbean. An exciting focus of this work was identifying sustainable and alternative livelihoods with artisanal fishers and farmers, i.e., small-scale fishers and farmers who use traditional methods. Out of 40+ ideas, seven pilot projects were selected by the island communities. These included cultivating iguana, breadfruit, and seaweed, all with value-added products and associated local industries; implementing a community-run mangrove park; and training fishers in underwater photography and other enterprises that build on their knowledge of the sea.

In the past several years, Professor Howard has also collaborated on research projects related to climate change adaptation for coastal and marine environments, small island development and heritage, and MPA governance and management, with diverse partners including Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment, University College London, University of Prince Edward Island's Institute of Island Studies, Caribbean Regional Activity Center for Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (CAR-SPAW), US National Ocean Service, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, and Forest Trends' Marine Ecosystem Services (MARES) Program.